VASCO: With the Vasco Saptah fair officially over, the port town residents on Monday expressed their anger over the presence of the makeshift stalls and sought an explanation from the Mormugao Municipal Council for allegedly issuing a “false” statement in the media that it would remove these structures by Saturday.
“This actually shows how slow the government department or municipal administration functions. We are not happy with the MMC as it has acted “carelessly” on the Saptah stalls issue. What surprises us is that CO Deepali Naik had clearly given a statement to the media that the stalls would be removed by Saturday. However, it appears that MMC has failed to realise that it’s Monday and the stalls are yet to be removed from the Saptah fair venue,” alleged Suresh Naik, a local. Another resident said, “While adopting a resolution for Saptah fair, MMC takes a decision to restrict the fair only for seven days, but later verbally grants extension to the fair thereby putting citizens to hardship. We demand that MMC should explain as to why they failed to comply with its own decision and allowed stall operators to conduct business till Monday”.
Meanwhile, MMC CODeepali Naik said, “I am very much upset with the way our municipal staff has acted in a “careless” manner. Before leaving for some official work outside state on Friday, I had called for a staff meeting and they were instructed to ensure that these stalls are removed by Saturday, but I am surprised that they have failed to comply with the orders. Since they (MMC staff) have not acted on the instructions, I will call for another meeting tomorrow to seek an explanation and if their reply is not convincing then the concerned officers/staff will have to face suspension.”
